442 



GLACIEllS— VIEW MOUNTAINS. May 18S0. 



large, and just on what might be called neutral ground between 

 the two tribes, it is not unlikely that there may have been 

 many a meeting there — perhaps many a battle. At the sepa- 

 ration, or meeting of the two channels, it was high water at a 

 quarter before five this morning, and the flood came from the 

 west, about a knot an hour ; the ebb-tide set to the west at 

 about half that strength. Much drift-wood and large fragments 

 of ice were carried along with it. Between some of the moun- 

 tains the ice extended so widely as to form immense glaciers, 

 which were faced, towards the water, by lofty cliffs. During a 

 beautifully fine and still night, the view from our fireside, in 

 this narrow channel, was most striking, though confined. 

 Thickly-wooded and very steep mountains shut us in on three 

 sides, and opposite, distant only a few miles, rose an immense 

 barrier of snow-covered mountains, on which the moon was 

 shining brightly. The water between was so glassy, that their 

 outline might be distinctly traced in it : but a death-like still- 

 ness was sometimes broken by masses of ice falling from the 

 opposite glaciers, which crashed, and reverberated around — like 

 eruptions of a distant volcano. 



" 10. Before daylight this morning, we were on our oars ; 

 and by the time the sun was high enough for observing, were 

 many miles westward of our resting-place. After sights, while 

 the men were cooking, I obtained a few bearings, and prepared 

 to return, not intending to go further westward. I saw water 

 from that spot, more than twenty miles to the west (by com- 

 pass) ; and then my view was limited by the channel turning 

 towards the south. In those twenty miles, not the slightest 

 appearance of an opening to the northward could be seen ; 

 mountain succeeded mountain, in unbroken succession. Three 

 ridges, or ranges, could be traced, lying parallel to each other ; 

 and the nearest summits of those in the third, or furthest range, 

 stretching from the northward and eastward of me, and conti- 

 nuing, as far as eye could reach, towards the north and west, 

 were at least five leagues distant. Their height I supposed to 

 be about four thousand feet : that of those nearest to me, about 

 two thousand : and of those in the middle range, mentioned 



